Essentially the hacking seems to have happened because of a zero-day flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

This just shows how important it is for everyone to patch their computers.

However, there is another patch which most webmasters forget to do and that is to patch their online softwares. Be it CMS’ like Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal or any other software that you use online, it is extremely essential that they are patched to the latest build. From my early days as a developer I have observed how software flaws have been picked up by hackers. They simply run a search on google for websites running a particular software by keying in certain standard URLs that are unique to the software and then  hack into the website – defacing the homepage, deleting core files, dropping their own files or even stealing the database.

To add to one’s misery I have also observed that  users often install a CMS and don’t backup the entire installation. Reason being the size of the installation is often too large for a backup; this is a major error. Because if your site is hacked, you have to restart building your website from scratch. Trust me, this is really disheartening and time consuming.

As a webmaster these are some of the key points you must adhere to

1. Patch your software

a. You can subscribe to your software’s newsletter that updates you when a new patch is available.

b. You can add a feed from your software’s website to your feed reader warning you when a software update has been posted.

c. Use Fantastico in the first place when you start installing known software. Fantastico will automate updates relieving you of updating your software from time to time.

2. Backup Backup Backup

Seriously! Need I elaborate on how important backing up is? Use your site’s control panel. If you are hosted with WebCynergy, simply head to www.YOURWEBSITE.com/cpanel and run an entire backup of your site. You can download this backup and keep the copy with you for a hay day.

If you would rather concentrate on your business or your website was developed by a few developers and you are no longer in touch with them, simply contact us. We will maintain your website by patching and updating your software from time to time for a small annual maintenance fee. How about that?

Host safely.

When you setup a website you have to get yourself a few basic things
1. A domain name – the very address that people will type to reach your website
2. A host who will hold all your online content and
3. Your content itself.

Personally speaking, I think purchasing your domain name and host is a very easy thing to do if you just require a few pages online. What is difficult is to choose a good host from among a myriad of options online. WebCynergy happens to be one more in the multitude – and yes proudly a good one

You can do both, registering your domain name and choosing your web hosting package here at WebCynergy itself – head to our homepage and get going!

Once the first 2 steps are done, how do you setup your own website? The most hassle free option is to use one of the two most popular software available online,
a. Joomla – if you are desigining a full fledged website, and
b. Wordpress – if you just need to blog.

Joomla is a point and click application. In fact you can automate most of its installation process too.
1. Simply head to Fantastico – which you will find inside your control panel when you host with WebCynergy (http://www.YOURWEBSITENAME.com/cpanel)
2. Head down and find ‘Fantastico De Luxe’ under software / services
3. Choose Joomla 1.5 which is the latest version and
4. Click install.
5. Your Joomla software will be installed and running.

Joomla has two ends – the frontend – which the world sees and so do you, and a backend which is accessed only by you.

It may look overwhelming at first sight. Now what are you supposed to do from here?

You are close – to get your website up and running you have to do just a few things
a. In Joomla before you post some content, you need to place that content in some category. If this category is not a sub-category by itself, then you also have to create a section name with the same category name. Finally post the content and assign the right section and category names to it.
b. Once done, you have to publish the content. It could be your front-page content or a content in one of the internal pages.
c. You may also most likely need to create menus if you have two or more pages to display online.
d. In that case simply head to the “main menu” option and create your menu structure. As you create each menu item, simply assign that menu item to an appropriate content.

That’s it! Your website is ready!

Joomla is as easy as I just typed. It has a lot more potential that you can harness. Head on to http://www.joomla.org/ and read more about Joomla. Check out their tutorials and find out what more can this software do for you. Three of Joomla’s advantages over any other software available online are
1. Ease of use
2. A large community of developers providing open source extensions and
3. Free templates available online.

Now if you are creating your own professional website, you may want to give the free templates a skip – as many sites would use the same. You may also want to use more of the functionalities Joomla brings to the table. If you wish to create a professional website with your own customised and unique template design matching your business and want to leverage Joomla to its full potential to deliver what you need, drop us an email and we will be glad to help you! WebCynergy is here to be your one stop shop for you entire online marketing experience!